Fluke remains the name of the game for the Helen H Fleet, with very few distractions. Capt. Joe Huck rated Tuesday morning’s half-day trip as the best showing of slabs on a short trip so far this season. That trip was set off by ideal drift conditions-a nice easy breeze out of the west backing an easterly flood tide, giving the H plenty of speed over ground. The tally for that trip included numerous fish in the 4- to 6-pound range, plus a load of chunky keepers to fill fillet bags. Seven-year-old Max Luppino of Pound Ridge, NY got on the board with a 6-plus-pound jumbo. Brother-sister team, Kelly and Nathan Mahalak from Wilkes Barre, PA had his-and-hers 5-pounders.

[...] Read the rest of this post »

It’s been a hectic week around the Helen H, and Capt. Joe Huck has remained in near-constant motion. The fluke fishing on both the local half-day and the full-day Nantucket runs has shown major signs of improvement in the consistency of the action. In general, big fish for all trips have fallen in the 7- to 9-plus-pound range, and Huck’s been pleased to see quite a few other fish in the 4- to 6-pound range on most trips. Tides went from very sluggish to cranking over the last seven days, to the extent that the better trips over the last few have been those days when the wind lays down a bit-the push of the tide alone plenty to keep the H moving along over ground.

[...] Read the rest of this post »

Capt. Joe Huck on the Helen H noted he’s seen some big improvement in the fluke fishing over the last week or so, due at least in part to the strengthening tides that are finally allowing the boats to cover some ground on the drift. Last Thursday, a full-day private fluke charter with the Cape Cod Salties had a good load of nice keeper fluke not too far from the Helen’s Hyannis slip. Notable catches for that trip were a 9.5-pound doormat for Norm Holcomb of Yarmouthport, and a trio of 6.5’s for Dennis Schock of Harwich, Bill Dagilis of Dennis and Dan Trainor of Orleans, among numerous other slabs in the 4- to 5-pound range. Both the half- and full-day trips have been seeing several fish in the 7- to 9-plus-pound range vying for pool honors. A charter last Wednesday saw a scattering of nicer sea bass to around the 5-pound mark mixed in with the fluke tally. [...] Read the rest of this post »

Carl Scuderi hefts a 10-plus doormat fluke he brought to net aboard the Fish Hawk at Nantucket.

Weak tides and light winds have continued to thwart the Helen H Fleet’s fluke fishing efforts. Thankfully, the tides have gained some oomph since late last week, lending a a bit more tidal “pull” to the water churning over the sandy high spots off Monomoy-to the extent that the rips are ripping again and the striper fishing is bouncing back from a near standstill last week. The Fish Hawk has been running striper/fluke combos, taking a nice mix of bass to around 35 inches and topping off coolers with some choice flattie fillets when the rip faces collapse and the bass disperse. One of the best fluke taken on the Fish Hawk over the last few days was a doormat just a hair over 10 pounds landed by Carl Scuderi (see photo at top right of this report).

The half-day trips, alternating between the Helen and the Angler during the week, are still leaning on the bumper crop of nice sea bass on the hard pieces around Nantucket Sound to take up slack from tougher going on the slabs. [...] Read the rest of this post »

Capt. Joe Huck on the Helen H lamented a continued struggle with light winds and weak tides when I caught up with him Friday afternoon. The unfavorable drift conditions out in Nantucket Sound forced a bit of a change in the game plan over the last few days. Joe and Capt. Walt elected to move onto tougher bottom to bump up the sea bass ratio, a move that panned out well on the half-day trip. Each trip has been seeing a dozen or more jumbo sea bass in the 3 ½- to 6-pound range, in addition to good numbers of smaller keepers that are taking the bite out of slow going with fluke. Patrons with the patience to work on a slow pick of fluke are still connecting with fish from 18 ½-inch keeper size to around 5 pounds. The sea bass are responding well to a number of different rigs. [...] Read the rest of this post »

The gorgeous, flat-calm weather over the weekend and early week proved a bit of a double-edged sword on the Nantucket Sound fluke grounds. Capt. Joe Huck on the Helen H noted that weak astronomical tides and light to nonexistent breezes added up to pretty tough drift conditions on a few of the half-day trips since Friday. “We’ve pretty much had to depend on what little tide there’s been to keep the boat covering ground,” he said, noting that he and Capt. Walt, alternating days between the Helen and the Angler, have been moving onto harder bottom to increase the sea bass ratio during a slower pick of fluke.

[...] Read the rest of this post »

Capt. Joe Huck enjoyed a brief bit of rest and relaxation this week, taking advantage of some precious down-time in the wake of porgy season-a span of the early season that leaves all hands pretty much exhausted. Naturally, much of Huck’s free hours were spent tackling the endless laundry list of maintenance and boat chores that keep each boat in the Fleet running in top form through a grueling year-round schedule. Since the last report on Monday, the Helen H devoted each day to half-day fishing out in the middle of Nantucket Sound.

As is always the case, each trip’s fluking success depended largely on what Mother Nature served up by way of drift conditions. On the days when tide and wind lined up, pushing the boat over ground at a decent clip (or one force over-powered the other with similar results), the pick of quality slabs was decent to good. On those days that provided minimal drift, the catch suffered. [...] Read the rest of this post »

Capt. Joe Huck on the Helen H had quite a bit of interesting news over the weekend-on several fronts. At the Angler’s helm Friday and Sunday, Capt. Walt knocked out a couple of the last scheduled porgy trips for the 2010 season, once again taking a long ride for greener pastures well south and west of the Fleet’s traditional spring/early-summer grounds, fishing the various humps, bumps and rockpiles around Noman’s, just off the Vineyard’s SW corner. Since Nantucket Sound went quiet a week or two ago, these grounds to the west’ard have been coughing up excellent catches of scup, most of them upwards of a pound, with the occasional three-plus Joe in the mix. Sea bass also added to the tally-no real corkers, but a slow, steady pick of keepers up to about the 2-pound mark, plus a handful of nice triggerfish and a fluke or bluefish here and there. [...] Read the rest of this post »

A lot’s happened in the last four days aboard the Helen H, one of the reasons we held off an extra day to update the fishing reports. Please note that we’re trying to stick to a rigid schedule, compiling reports on Mondays-leading out of the weekend and into the new week-and on Thursdays-leading into the weekend.

I caught Capt. Huck mid-afternoon on Friday. Heading into the last leg of the annual two-day limited load Nantucket Layover Fluke Trip, Capt. Huck was more than satisfied with the quality of the fishing along the east and south sides of Nantucket. Though his original plan had been to divide the time up between Nantucket and the Vineyard, a very steady pick of mostly keeper-sized slabs through the day on Thursday left Huck seeing little reason to continue the search in more distant waters. Big fish as of noon, day two, was a fat doormat scaling a little shy of the 9-pound mark. That fish was landed by NJ native, Jerry Hydrosko. Huck noted there were a good number of other fish in the 5- to 7-pound range in the coolers around the deck. [...] Read the rest of this post »

“We’re about at the tail end of porgy time,” said Capt. Joe Huck of the Helen H. After an explosive early start to the season, the skipper has seen water temps spike dramatically over the last week, with a reading of 67 degrees on Sunday’s run. That rapid warming has definitely taken a toll on the pick of scup. Huck noted that the quality is still definitely there, with most of the porgies coming in of respectable to impressive sizes, but the frequency has slowed to a crawl. He and the other skippers in the fleet are still managing to put a respectable catch together by working harder on the sea bass. They’ve been seeing a pretty good mix of sizes on the sea bass, from throwbacks to jumbos, on every trip. [...] Read the rest of this post »